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True to its origin. Not false, counterfeit or imitating. Free from corruption, influence, or distortion.
Prologue: Angela Braden, EFTMP, has assumed the role of Director of Touch the Future, Inc. She brings a powerful blend of journalistic depth, emotional intelligence, and practical expertise that aligns seamlessly with Touch the Future’s founding mission.
I began publishing interviews and essays in 1995, sharing what I believe are inspiring ideas and issues. By contemporary ‘short attention span standards’ my posts are lengthy. The following is just over eight pages. Without seeking praise, do you find these posts meaningful? Can you share any suggestions that will better serve your needs and interests? I will continue to write regardless. Sharing is another matter. Your feedback is appreciated. michael@ttfuture.org
Krishnamurti observed, “we are second hand human beings,” enchanted, domesticated by selfish images, culture, their conditioning and conflicts. Our authentic nature is corrupted and distorted. We have been warned. From Genesis to Plato’s Cave, Lao-Tzu, Goethe’s cautionary poem, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and its unintended consequences. Yet, very, very few awaken from the dream. Most see little more than shadows dancing on the cave wall. History is not on our side.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama invites us to discover the reality behind appearances. Our tacit acceptance of things as they seem is called ignorance, which is not just a lack of knowledge about how people and things actually exist but an active mistaking of their fundamental nature. His central theme is that our skewed perceptions of body and mind lead to disastrous mistakes, ranging from lust at the one extreme to raging hatred at the other so that we are consistently being led into trouble as if pulled by a ring in our nose…. He describes how to harness the power of meditative concentration with insight to achieve immersion in our own ultimate (authentic) nature. To develop in us a clear sense of what it means to exist without misconception. And the way this profound state of being enhances love by revealing how unnecessary destructive emotions and suffering actually are.
Jeffery Hopkins, Translator, How to See Yourself as You Really Are
We don’t really understand the nature of our thought process; we’re not aware of how it works and it’s really disrupting, not only our society and our individual lives but also the way the brain and nervous system operate, making us unhealthy or perhaps even some way damaging the system.
To center our thought on something illusory which is assumed to have supreme importance is going to disrupt the whole process and it will not only make thought about yourself wrong, it will make thought about everything wrong so that thought becomes a dangerous and destructive instrument all around.
David Bohm, with Michael Mendizza
David continues by describing why simple and clear observations like those above, and centuries like them, fail to awaken us from our enchanted images of self and other.
We are faced with a breakdown of general social order and human values that threatens stability throughout the world. Existing knowledge cannot meet this challenge. Something much deeper is needed, a completely new approach. I am suggesting that the very means by which we try to solve our problems is the problem. The source of our problems is within the structure of thought itself.
The state of the mind that creates the problem can’t solve the problems it creates. That too is simple and clear. So, what do we do? As Bohm, the Dalai Lama and rare others invite, we stop trying to unite our mental knots with concepts that create more knots.
Instead, with care and clear attention, we ‘try’ to shut-up. But, even that often fails. Trying evokes the same system that the ‘trying’ hopes to negate. “Something much deeper is needed, a completely new approach.” Appreciating this paradox, we discover that the source of our problems is the ‘state of the mind,’ not its content. After all, content trying to change or eliminate content is still content. Ah, there is nothing we can do. No effort to be made.
As Ram Dass observed, ‘we have to give it all up to have it all.’ So, we relax. Stop trying. Suddenly the tension in the brain caused by trying, by thinking and hoping to achieve, like a clenched fist, releases. Conscious awareness expands, including, embracing and becoming everything it beholds. Behind what we consider to be ‘reality,’ with its conditioned memories, judgments, concepts and fears, is another ‘state,’ vast, ever-present-entangled-presence that has existed for millions of years. Perhaps forever. And this, not our social conditioning, responds, dances, improvises something new, creative, nurturing and whole. That spontaneous newness is authentic.